Anthropic Accelerates Toward $2 Trillion IPO as OpenAI Delays Public Debut

$2 trillion. That's the figure Anthropic is reportedly preparing to anchor its IPO on — a number that would have read as science fiction twelve months ago, when the company's annualized revenue run rate sat near $9 billion.

According to reporting from Business Upturn, both Anthropic and OpenAI filed to go public last quarter, but their timelines have already diverged. Anthropic is targeting a September or October listing. OpenAI, per CFO Sarah Friar, prefers to wait until 2027. The asymmetry says everything about the math each company is staring at.

Anthropic's revenue engine vs. the valuation math

The pitch is blunt. Anthropic's annualized revenue run rate hit $65 billion by end of July, up from $47 billion in May — a near-sevenfold climb from end-2025. Q2 revenue alone is expected to land around $10.9 billion, roughly double the prior quarter. The 2028 revenue forecast band sits at $190–200 billion.

That velocity buys patience from public-market investors. It also explains why Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan are reportedly on the IPO prep roster. Banks don't staff a $2 trillion float unless they see the order book clearing.

OpenAI's expensive wait

OpenAI's financials are improving, not stalling. Quarterly revenue rose 18% sequentially to $6.7 billion in Q2; enterprise sales are up 50%; the annualized run rate recently crossed $40 billion. Roughly 20 million weekly active users now sit across its developer tools and AI agents.

But the valuation overhang is the issue. At $852 billion — built on a March round that pulled in $122 billion — OpenAI trades at a steeper multiple than Anthropic on most conventional metrics. Friar's framing is telling: an IPO is "another way to raise capital," not a milestone. Translation: they don't need the cash yet, and they won't sell the equity at this level.

Rational posture. Also a bet that 2027 indices will tolerate the multiple better than 2026 ones.

The control architecture and the debt scaffold

Anthropic isn't merely preparing to go public — it's preparing to stay private in governance. Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei holds less than 2% of the economic stake. The likely workaround: a special share class with enhanced voting rights, structurally mirroring what keeps Mark Zuckerberg in control of roughly 60% of Meta's voting power despite a modest economic slice.

Insulation from quarterly shareholder pressure? Yes. A discount for governance-averse funds? Also yes.

Meanwhile, the company is expanding its revolving credit line — initially sized at $10 billion, on top of a $2.5 billion facility secured last year. The obvious driver is compute spend. Pre-IPO debt is standard hygiene. This size is not.

The sobering read

A $2 trillion valuation requires the 2028 revenue forecast to land, or close to it. Miss by 30% and the arithmetic breaks. OpenAI's path is more conservative but no less exposed — its $852 billion mark demands the same magnitude of forward execution.

Neither company is priced for disappointment. Follow the credit facility, not the press release. That's where the real signal sits.